I*x*ice lO Cents. 



'?»;5-c.Y -."v^:.^ '-v <r-^s::7-or-r^.i::::7 x-ir.fvs;;7^:25r- ■^^'<i_>' ^-c^^sz^'ss^" 






COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. ? 



SB 249 
K3 
Copy 1 



A TREATISE 



"d 



^PEEENl^IAL COTTON;! 

• (GOSSYPIITM ARBOKEUM.) 

ITS COMMERCIAL VALUE AS COMPARED WITH HERBACEOUS COTTOX — THE FEASI- 
BILITY OF ITS CULTURE IN NORTHERN LATITUDES, ETC., ETC. 



il 



E. C. KENDALL, ESQ., 



OF MARTLAND. 



m 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY MAPES & LOCKWOOD, 

NO. 23 COURTLANDT STREET. 
1862. 



-s:>r^' -^ >, 



li 



COTTON AND COMMON SENSE 



A TREATISE 



PEEE1>^I^^IAL COTTOISr-, 

(GOSSyPiUM AEBOEEITM.) 



ITS COMMERCIAL VALUE AS COMPARED WITn HERBACEOUS COTTON — THE FEAST- ' 
BILITT OP ITS CULTURE IN NORTHERN LATITUDES, ETC., ETC. 



R. C. KENDALL, ESQ., 



OF MARYLAND. 



«o^^^ 



\!^N:pi 



N E W Y R K : 
rUBLISIlED BY MAPES & LOCKWOOD, 

NO. 23 COURTLANDT STREET. 
1862. 



We liave made arrangements to import a quantity o± 
tlie Cuttings and Seeds of the Peeennial Cotton-Teee, 
under the personal supervision of Capt. R. C. Kendall, 
wlio will leave during tlie early part of the coming Spring. 

Capt. Kendall will make his selection from the same 
locality where he procured the Seed successfully grown by 
him in Maryland. 

A small quantity of Perennial Cotton Seed from the 
northern part of Peru has been left with us for sale, at 
One Dollar per Paper, containing Five Seeds; sent by 
Mail, postage paid. 

MAPES & LOCKWOOD, 
Agricultural Implement and Seed Warehouse 

JPuhlishej'S of The Worhing Farmer^ 
NO. 23 COURTLANDT STREET, Near Broadway, 

NEW YORK. 







COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 



Iisr tlie following pages I propose to discuss fairly, and 
as fully as tlie allotted space will permit, a subject now 
beginning to excite interest and inquiry throughout our 
entire country — viz. : Tlie jproduction of a good mercantile 
cotton ill large portions of the United States where its cul- 
tivation has hitherto heen regarded as improjcticaljle. In my 
belief the matter is no longer a question^ but a certainty — 
and one which, without doubt, will become apparent to 
the public mind as soon as certain measures, now under con- 
sideration, shall have been carried into eifect. 

There is, in the whole vegetable kingdom, probably no 
other member of the plant family so widely disseminated 
as the cotton. There is no one of the great divisions of 
the globe that does not produce cotton. No very extended 
territory in two of those great divisions to which cotton, 
either as tree, shruli, or herbaceous plant, is not indige- 
nous. In Europe and America, the cotton limits are more 
circumscribed than in Asia and Africa, not that the field 
in which it will grow is narrower in extent, but that nature, 
in her fostering care for man, found no necessity for wider 



6 , COTTOlSr AND COMMOISr SENSE. 

distribution of tlie material when slie first planted lier 
^vorld-garden. But once let the necessity arise, and she 
most kindly steps in to second human efforts, and supply 
the cotton wants of man in Illinois as well as India, in New 
England as in New Grenada. It is unreasonable to expect 
nature to plant and perfect every thing we recpiire, 
without an effort on our part to assist her. She has most 
generously given us cotton in as varied form as she has ten 
thousands of our other requirements, justly expecting us to 
select and experiment upon and improve her gifts for our 
own benefit. 

In Borneo, and a few other islands of the Indian Ocean, 
she has planted the gigantic Gossypium growing into a 
massive tree, enduring for centuries, leaving it to man^s 
ingenuity to discover its commercial value and utilize it. 
In the Southern States of our own country, nature, at the 
call of a young nation's necessity, planted the herbaceous 
cotton, the honor of proclaiming the advent of which is due 
to Colonel Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. Commercial 
expediency promptly put forth her fostering hand and led 
the stranger onward, almost to a throne, from which to 
dictate terms to the civilized world. 

In Egypt, India, China, and thousands of far ofl:* corners 
of the world, nature has planted cotton, leaving it for com- 
merce to distribute it to the world] To some extent com- 
merce has long since answered the call ; but until European 
looms and spindles — nay, even Europe herself, shall have 
been transferred to the Orient, commerce, in spite of nature's 
l)idding, will nevertheless follow expediency; and this 
being the case, her glance will continue in all time to come 



COTTOjST and common SEN8E. 7 

to be steadily fixed upon tlie Western World as a source 
whence to draw the elements of her own prosperity. That 
in the future this glance shall become general, looking to 
our whole country, instead of a fraction thereof, as has 
heretofore been the case, is hourly becoming more and more 
apparent. 

We shall, beyond all question, I believe, ere long supply 
to the spindles and looms of Europe from two-thirds of all 
the free territory in the Union, a cotton fully equal to any 
produced elsewhere, and which we can afford at rates that 
will effectually silence competition from beyond Capes 
Horn and Good Hope. But , in order to accomplish this, 
desirable end, we must avail ourselves of, and utilize a 
cotton, radically different in its structure and organization' 
from the herbaceous plant so generally cultivated in the 
South. This material we have had within the reach of our 
outstretched hand, any day and always, ever since our 
earliest existence as a nation. 

Scattered all over South America, from the frigid regions 
of Patagonia to the equator, and from the shores of the 
Pacific, to the delta of the Orinoco, there is found growing 
spontaneously a cotton-bearing tree, taking on various habits 
consequent upon conditions of soil and climate, yielding 
cotton perennially and enduring without replanting, from 
ten to sixty years. The.nol)ler — probably the elder branch 
of this perennial cotton-bearing tree, has been very properly 
christened the Gos-sypium Arhoreum^ known to naturalists 
these thousand years past, and utilized by the ancient Peru- 
vians, centuries anterior to the conquest of their country 
by the Spaniards. 



8 COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 

As some account of my first interview witli liis venerable 
cottonsliip may not be uninteresting in tliis connection, I 
extract the following from tlie report of one of my lectures, 
published in the Worhing Farmer, of N.Y. : 

"Several years ago, while an employe in the Patent Office, 
I received and accepted a tempting offer from a Chilian 
gentleman of wealth, Senor Alsogara, to conduct certain 
matters on his estates. One holiday morning, not very 
long after my arrival at my temporary South American 
home, I set out on horseback along the course of a modest 
little river, called the Chipura, and forming the boundary 
between semi-civilization, and the territory of the Ypurian 
savages. Resolved to explore as much of my patron's do- 
main as the brief May day would allow, I pushed briskly 
forward over the already frozen ground, covered fetlock 
deep with newly fallen snow, following the windings of the 
stream, whose ledgy banks of dark rock, generally thrust 
back, as it were, by alluvial bottoms from one to three hun- 
dred yards distant, indicated that the Cldpura had one day 
been a river of ten times its present volume. After a ride 
of some two hours, in doubling an abrupt turn where the 
rocks approached very near the water, I came suddenly into 
full view of an object some two hundred yards distant, 
which presented the most magnificent spectacle I had ever 
seen — a perfect cone, or j^yramid of pure, brilliant snow, 
elevated at its base perhaps seven feet from the ground, 
upon a shaft of whitish bronze ; the whole structure cut 
clear and sharp against the dark wall of rock in the back 
ground. I had in northern countries, after a calm fall of 
snow, seen many a white pyramid, having an internal 



COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. V 

structure of piue or spruce, but knowing tliat in tlie pres- 
ent instance tlie snow had fallen during a violent gale, and 
observing that none of tlie pines about me bore any traces 
of it upon their branches, I rode forward in semi-bewilder- 
ment, to investigate the phenomenon. 

" It resolved itself, as I drew near, into a most perfect 
specimen of the Oossypium Arhoreum^ the perennial cotton- 
tree. Its foliage had long been shed, but the pods re- 
mained, having fully burst, and turned out theu' spotless 
samples in almost perfect roses, covering the entire structure 
with a dense mass of spotless, glossy cotton. I had often 
seen and examined indifferent specimens of the perennial 
cotton shrub, but I had never seen any thing even approach- 
ing in perfection that solitary tree. 

"The remainder of that, and many a saint day thereafter, 
was devoted to intimate companionship with, and diligent 
study of the habits, peculiarities, and general economy of 
the beautiful solitaire of the OliipuraP 

Havino; since made this individual member of the cotton 
family the subject of careful study and investigation for 
several years, I shall endeavor to place its merits before the 
public, being fully impressed with the vast importance of 
an extended movement looking to its general introduction 
into the Middle and Northern States of our Union. 

In the hio-her and colder latitudes of South America, on 
the confines of Patagonia, I found the Gossypiiim Arho- 
reuTn attaining the dignity of a tree, the average size of the 
northern peach-tree, growing beautifully symmetrical and 
very compact, having its seasons, blooming and perfecting 
its fruit with gi'eat uniformity ; giving an abundant yield 



10 COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 

of long staple, fine-fibred, pure-white cotton, fully equal- 
ling tlie best " sea island " ever grown. 

On tlie Pacific side of tlie continent, I found the tree 
growing in the utmost perfection, in the parallel of 40° 10' 
south. I also heard from the natives, accounts of its abund- 
ant and vigorous growth, fully three degrees farther south; 
but as I will vouch for nothing that I do not know to be a 
fact, nor presume to pass my own belief as current truths, 
I give my Patagonian information as obtained, simply sug- 
gesting that an Indian's information is very generally as 
reliable as that of the white man. 

Certain it is, however, that I found the finest specimens 
of the tree, bearing cotton of the longest staple and 
whitest, finest fibre, in a region where the snow lies three 
months out of the twelve ; where the vicissitudes of cli- 
mate are greater than they are in New England ; and 
where not only the natives, but the furred animals, some- 
times freeze to deatK On the Atlantic side, the Gossy- 
pium Arboreum grows spontaneously and entirely hardy, 
as high as the parallel of 42'-"'. That the tree readily adapts 
itself to all reasonable and very many unreasonable condi- 
tions of soil and climate, is conclusively proven by the fact 
of my having found it growing bravely at an altitude very 
nearly approaching the snow-line, on the eastern slope of 
the Bolivian Andes, in a soil as red with peroxide of iron 
as a well-burnt brick, and almost as hard. In the Desert 
of Alcamaya, I found it growing most determinedly in a 
bed of volcanic scoria, where never a drop of rain falls. 
In the vicinity of Arica and Tacna, in Peru, it thrives and 
produces cotton, growing in a waste of arid, burning sand. 



COTTON AISTD COMMONS' SENSE. ' 11 

In tlie delta of the Guayaquil, it flourislies in an eternal 
quagmire ; and on the eastern slope of San Gauy it clings 
to tlie l)are calcareous rock, and lives. Everywhere in the 
low countries of the tropical regions, both the tree and 
staple degenerate ; the former, in all cases, into a shrub, of 
from nine to twelve years duration ; the latter always into 
a coarser,, shorter, and under many conditions, into a mate- 
rial of no commercial value. In Peru, however, there are 
a few localities in which the tree-cotton grows sponta- 
neously, giving better results than shown l^y the general 
rule in a similar climate. In the valley of the Oliira, lati- 
tude of 3" south, there has been, ever since 1851, an annual 
produce of perennial cotton, of six thousand bales, of one 
hundred and fifty pounds each, mostly of spontaneous 
gro\vth; and any time during the past six years, worth in 
the port of Paita, whence it is shipped to England, sixteen 
dollars per hundred pounds — evidence conclusive that it is 
better than the best Louisiana. 

Again, in the parallel of ,12° 40' south, and at an alti- 
tude of six thousand eio-ht hundred feet above the sea, 
there is, at the present time, a miniature plantation of per- 
ennial cotton, healthy and vigorous at the age of twenty- 
eight years, and yielding annually one thousand five hun- 
dred pounds of cotton per acre, of a quality fully equal to 
that grown in the valley of the Chira. 

A variety of the Gos-sypium Arhoreum is found here 
and there, throughout the greater part of South and Cen- 
tral America, and also in Mexico, and several of the West 
India Islands, which, by Linnfeus, has been distinctly 
christened Oossypium Religiosum^ though the propriety 



12 COTTOlSr AJS^D COMJION SEISTSE. 

of that cliristening, given tliougli it was by tlie great 
naturalist, we cannot quite understand ; for very certain it 
is tliat the variety, being only of climatical necessity, no 
more entitles the shrub to a distinctive classification, than 
does the accident of locality and peculiar cultivation of 
the herbaceous plant entitle it to become the parent of a 
new race of cotton. In the great majority of instances, 
the produce of these cotton shrubs, whether within or 
without the tropics, is quite valueless for spinning pur- 
poses, as it lacks length of staple and strength of fibre; 
hence the time exj^ended upon experiments with plants 
or seeds of this variety of the Go-ssypiuni A.rhoreum, 
would be uselessly thrown away. Oui' own opinion is, 
that in order to produce the perfect, hardy, symmetrical 
tree, capable of bearing a good quality of cotton, the seeds, 
or cuttings from which the tree is produced, must come 
from a region having a soil and climate corresponding to 
that into which it is to be introduced ; thus with the 
material to propagate from coming from a cold southern 
latitude, they are of themselves hardy and capable of pro- 
ducing a perfectly hardy tree. 

I am fully aware that the almost unanimous verdict of 
scientific men is opposed to such a theory. They maintain 
that, under all proper conditions, like j^roduces like ; and 
that the seed of the Gossypium Arhoreum, bring it from 
where you will, will inevitably produce just such perfect, 
vigorous, symmetrical trees as are found growing in a high, 
cold latitude, provided they are planted in one of corre- 
sponding temperature. I am perfectly willing to bow to 
the supremacy of science ; but not quite j^repared to en- 



COTTON AjS'D COMMOIS" SENSE. 13 

dorse all scientific tlieories, where sucli endorsement can 
possibly compromise my own integi'ity of opinion, or in 
any manner endanger the popularity of a movement 
wliicli, being accepted by tlie pul^lic at large, mil, I verily 
believe, forever preclude tlie possibility of any futui*e dif- 
ficulty sucli as now distracts our country. 

The declaration that cotton cannot be successfully grown 
far north of a parallel which has hitherto bounded the 
herbaceous cotton empii'e, is wholly unsupported by either 
fact or philosophy ; for as there is nothing strictly tropical 
in the constitutional structure of any member of the 
Gossypium family, there can be no legitimate argument 
adduced why even the common herbaceous plant of the 
South, its habits having been changed by careful nursing 
into the hard-wooded shrub, should not be successfully 
grown at least five degrees further north than it has 
hitherto been cultivated. 

In regard to the cotton-bearing tree, the objections that 
have heretofore been exj)ressed against the feasibility of 
its northern growth, are not even founded on prejudice ; 
for in absolute ignorance upon a subject, no such senti- 
ment can exist. They are only thoughtless denials, 
founded upon nothing; just such denials as were once 
patent throughout our country, when any innovation upon 
old-time stand-stillism was suo;:o;ested. A lono; time and 
stubbornly the non-progressive dark-lanterns of our coun- 
try stoutly opposed the idea of improving our stock by 
importation of foreign l^reeds ; unqualifiedly denied the 
possibility of perfecting a good grape in our climate ; 
named all improvements, impossibilities ; clinching all de- 



14 COTTOlSr AND COMMON SENSE. 

clarations, and cutting off discussion, witli woman's favo- 
rite and unanswerable clincher — " Can't do it, because you 
can't." Experience in all these matters lias long since 
given a positive negative to all such disclaimers ; and just 
as positively have my own experience and experiments 
with tlie tree-cotton, refuted the declaration sometimes 
made, that no good cotton can be successfully grown in a 
cold climate. True it is, that the demonstration is not, as 
yet, so universal as to become arbitrary, as in the case of a 
thousand other improvements ; but if an enlightened pub- 
lic be willing to accept truth for truth's self, I have no 
fears for the result. 

Assuming, then, that very good cotton can be successfidly 
and profitably grown in a wide territory of the northern 
states, let us consider statistically the advantages the 
northern and middle states may gain by its general intro- 
duction. 

Firstly : not more than three-fifths of the free states are, 
at the present time, under cultivation, leaving ample 
breadth for the production of a world supply of cotton, 
without in the least interfering with the general economy 
of agriculture as now practised, producing a crop more re- 
munerative than can possibly be afforded by slave labor in 
the south. Let us investigate : — 

The average yield per acre, taking the whole cotton- 
bearing region south, is ■ one five-hundred-pound bale per 
acre. A good field-hand will plant, cultivate, and harvest 
four acres, making in the aggregate two thousand pounds 
per hand. This, at ten cents per pound, gives a gross 
total of $200. 



$80 


00 


12 


Oi) 


- 70 


00 


20 


00 



COTTOX AND COMMON SENSE. 15 

The interest ou a good field-hand is 
Insurance - - - - - - - 

Clothing and food - - - - ' - 

Medicine, doctor's iDills, and loss of time, say 

$182 00 

Leaving a margin of $18 gross, or $4 50 per acre, which 
is not infrequently more than absorbed by divers inciden- 
tal expenses, always more inevitable and exorbitant in the 
South than in the North ; thus showing conclusively that 
cotton-growing ^6^r se, is not in the South, a remunerative 
branch of agriculture. 

It is very true that there are numerous instances all over 
the South where a single slave will produce ten and twelve 
bales of cotton per annum. But these are only exceptions 
to the general rule. 

The Gossypiuin Arhoreuni once introduced, and having 
attained its maximum of production, will afford fifteen 
hundred pounds of clean lint per acre, and an ordinary 
farm hand can easily attend to, and harvest five acres. 
Making the standard price ten cents per pound, and we 
have for the five acres a total of $750. This will be pro- 
duced at a cost which can be fairly estimated as follows : — 

Twelve months' services of one hand, at $12 23er 
month, - - - - - - - - $144 00 

Year's board, at $10 per month, - - - 120 00 



$264 00 
Which being deducted fi-om $750, leaves a balance of 

20. per acre. " 
In the above estimate I have considered the interest on 



16 COTTON" AND COMMON" SENSE. 

land, cost of culture, and fertilizers, tlie same botli Nortli 
and South, and also charged the northern crop with a whole 
year's board and labor, whereas, eight months of each is in 
reality all that ought to be placed to the debtor side of 
free cotton account, while the ex2:)ense of the southern 
planter in his slave producer, is continuous, whether em- 
ployed or unemployed, so that in strict justice, full thirty- 
eight 23er cent, ought to be placed to the credit side of 
the northern-grown cotton, over and above the foregoing 
estimate. 

In consideration of the numerous inquiries constantly 
being made in regard to planting, culture and care of the 
South American cotton-tree, the necessary instructions may, 
very properly, be appended here as a conclusion to the fore- 
going remarks. 

As the small sample of seeds now on hand, were sent me 
from a region of Peru whose low thermometrical range 
arises from altitude instead of latitudinal necessity, I con- 
fess to a doubt of their entire hardiness and capacity to at 
once produce the fully developed, symmetrical tree, defying 
frosts, and all the rigors of a severe climate, as in the case 
of those I found growing on the confines of Patagonia. 
Hence, I recommend that tliese seeds, if planted during the 
winter, should be placed in eight-inch pots, filled with 
woods mold composted with light sandy loam; the seeds 
placed one inch below the surface, and the pots stood in 
some place having a uniform temperature of about 60'', 
until germination occurs, when they should be gradually 
moved toward a lower temperature. It would be better 
still, to delay the planting until the first of May, and plant 



COTTOIS" AND COMilON SENSE. 17 

in the open air ; select warm, ricli soil, protecting tlie young 
trees from tlie frost of the first winter, 1))^ mulcliing 
thorouglily about tlie roots, and covering, as we do our 
rose-bushes. Havino; carried tlieni throuo-h the first win- 
ter, they will, unquestionably, have taken on all the hardy 
habits of the Chilian tree, and will stand with entii^e im- 
punity all future vicissitudes. 

The seeds of the tree from the higher latitudes of Chili, 
which I can most fiilly endorse as capable of producing a 
tree in any northern climate, quite as hardy as the apple- 
tree, may be planted eithei* in November or April. I 
would advise starting them in a nursery precisely as apple- 
seeds are j)lanted, to be transferred to the field the second 
year, and there set twelve feet apart each way, cutting back 
the main shoot, to induce laterals, and always cutting down, 
in order to have the pods within reach of the hand, for the 
convenience of gathering. The land thus planted with a 
cotton orchard, may be every year cropped with any of the 
cereals, until the trees shall, by their breadth, have occu- 
pied the whole surface. All cuttings obtained by such 
prunings may be turned to good account, by simply thrust- 
ing them into the ground, as they will root kindly, and 
produce cotton at the second year. 

Arrangements have already been made with Messrs. 
Mapes & Lockwood to obtain at an early day, l3oth seeds 
and cuttings from the coldest regions where the Gossypium 
Arboreum is kno^vn to grow, and when it is received, due 
notice will be given to the public. 

In conclusion, I would remark, that when scarcely 
more than a year ago, I first began publicly to discuss the 



18 COTTOlSr AiSTD COMMON" SENSE. 

possibility of growing a cotton-bearing tree in the -free 
states, it was claimed tliat no one else Jmd ever heard of 
such a tiling. Now the unqualified testimony to its exist' 
ence and merit is comino; in from a thousand directions. 
One would imao-ine, from the verbal and written evidence 
of which I am now in daily receipt, that the perennial 
cotton-tree ought to liave been in general cultivation fifty 
years since. I am in no way jealous of the knowledge pos- 
sessed by others in regard to my protege ; but on the con 
trary, I would that every man and woman in our whole 
country were as well acquainted with the merits of the 
Gossyinum Arbo?'ey?u, as myself 

From the great number of notices published in public 
journals in all sections of the country, I select such as are 
conveniently at hand. K. C. Kendall. 

From the Journal of Commerce. 

Perennial Cotton in Cold Climates, 

Captain R. C. Kendall, formerly of the United States 
Coast Survey, is making an earnest effort to interest mer- 
chants and ao-ricnlturists in the Northern States in the 
practicability of introducing, for general culture in this 
part of the country, a species of cotton-growing plant 
from Peru. He is confident that results of great commer- 
cial importance may be anticipated. A\Tiile engaged, sev- 
eral years ago, on the estate of a gentleman in Chili, Mr. 
Kendall's attention was directed to a fine specimen of the 
Gos-syiyium Arhoremn^ or perennial cotton-tree, presenting 
to the eye "a perfect cone, or pyi^amid of pure, brilliant 
snow, elevated at its base ]')erhaps seven feet from the 
ground, upon a shaft of whitish bronze." . The foliage had 



COTTON AND COMMON SEN8E. 19 

been shed, but the pods remained, having fully Inu'st, cov- 
ering the entire structure with a mass of spojbless cotton. 
In a. recent lecture before the New York Farmers' CluT), 
Mr. Kendall remarked as follows : — 

"The Gossypium Arhoi^eum^ or Peruvian cotton-tree, 
will yet- answer the almost universal call for a cotton capa- 
pie of being cultivated in northern latitudes. It is peren- 
nial, can be grown wherever Indian corn can be matured, 
and promises to yield larger crops than the present herba- 
ceous cotton of the South, while its requisite culture and 
mode of manipulation are such as can readily be per- 
formed here. I have already proved, by personal experi- 
ment, that it can be groAvn in the northern 2>ai't of Mary- 
land, and shall most ■ earnestly urge the prosecution of 
more extended experiments, fitUy assured that its success- 
ful introduction will tend to prevent any future recurrence 
of difficulties, such as now derange the harmony of the 
country." 

The plant is perfected in its sixth or seventh year, ob- 
taining the size of a common peach-tree, and thrives best 
in a high latitude. Its product can be prepared for mar- 
ket with great facility, as the seed is attached to the sta- 
men (not distributed through the lint, as in the herbaceous 
cotton), and is readily shaken off, without ginning. 
Either seed or cuttings may be used in propagating the 
plant, and we understand that Mr. Kendall proposes to 
demonstrate tha-t it is 2:)racticable to produce, in the free 
states, an abundant supply of good cotton. He predicts 
that "the period is not very remote, when hedges, most 
efficient as fences, shall yield annual dividends of cotton; 



20 • COTTOIS" AND COMMON SENSE. 

ornamental trees, blending tlie useful witli the beautiful, 
sball repay tenfold their cost and culture ; when the rug- 
ged heights of the Hudson, the plains of New Jersey, the 
fertile valleys of the Keystone State, and the undulating 
prairies of the Great West, shall gleam in the sun-light, 
white as the winter drift, with generous pods of Demo- 
cratic cotton." This is a glowing prospect; but if only 
part of it shall be realized, the consequences cannot easily 
be estimated. 

From the New York Sun. 

Mr. Kendall's Lecture on Cotton. 

An intelligent and deeply interested audience listened 
to Mr. Kendall's lecture on the Peruvian perennial cotton- 
tree, last evening. The substance' of the information he 
advanced, has been anticipated in our former notices of 
the subject. He gave a sufficiently discouraging account 
of the prospects of the British cotton-supply movement, 
and accounted for the undeveloped condition of the peren- 
nial cotton of South America, by the inefficient character 
of the population, and the inaccessible ruggedness of the 
country. 

ACTUAL CONDITION OP THE PERENNIAL COTTON CULTURE. 

But is this cotton groTVTi in, and actually exported from 
Peru? Yes. In territories insignificant in extent, and 
widely separated by broad belts of intervening desert. 
Along the borders of unreliable rivers, coursing dowTi the 
Pacific slope of the coast range, the perennial Peruvian 
cotton has been precariously produced in small quantities. 
Between the years 1851 and 1858, there was an average 
annual yield of cotton from the valley of the Cldra, of six 



COTTOT^ AND COMMON SENSE. 21 

thousand bales perennial cotton, weighing one hundred and 
fifty pounds each, fully six-tenths being of entirely sj^on- 
taneous growth. That the staple of this Peruvian tree- 
cotton — even when produced, as it usually is in Peru, with- 
out care or culture — is superior to the best upland staple 
of the cotton states of North America, witness the fact 
that in the years 1859 and 1860, cotton grown in the val- 
ley of the OJiira sold iu the port of Paiia, at sixteen dol- 
lars per hundred pounds. 

WHERE TO KAISE IT. 

The study of cotton, iu all its economy, for more than 
half an ordinary life-time, with an actual practical expe- 
rience in cotton-growing of more than twenty years, has 
convinced me, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that peren- 
nial cotton can be profitably gi'own in any territory pos- 
sessing the requisite quality of soil for its natural devel- 
opment, where Indian corn will mature its crop. That 
is a condition of soil far more indispensabl^e to the suc- 
cessful culture of cotton, than any definite temperature of 
climate, my own observations and experiments have proved. 

Two-thirds of the present free states of the Union, pos- 
sess this requisite of soil — several of them in an eminent 
degree — and there is no well-founded reason why they 
should not afford an unlimited supply of cotton, equalling 
in quality the best southern staple, and at a clear profit to 
the producer, of fifty per cent, above the average proceeds 
from the usual farm crops ; and that, too, without mate- 
rially lessening the breadth of land now devoted to grass 
and grain, or seriously interfering with the routine of 
farm economy, as at present conducted. 



22 COTTON AXD COMJIOiS' SENSE. 

From the Commercial Advertiser. 

A New Source for the Supply of Cotton. 

Mr. E. C. Kendall, from Nortliern Maryland, lias called 
upon us with tlie important announcement that lie lias dis- 
covered a new source for the supply of cotton. A long con- 
versation with this gentleman, aside from bis testimonials, 
has satisfied us of the genuineness of his discovery — one 
whose importance at this juncture cannot easily be over- 
rated. Several years ago, while an employe in the Patent 
Ofiice, Mr. Kendall, who is a northern man by birth, received 
and accepted a liberal offer made by a Chilian gentleman, 
and removed to South America. While exploring the 
country in the region of the Andes, and not far from the 
fortietli parallel of latitude, he came upon a magnificent 
cotton-tree, differing in appearance from any plant of the 
kind that had ever before come under his notice. It was 
found in the month of May (our November), when the 
ground was covered with several inches of snow. The ele- 
vation of the locality was such that snow usually lay on 
the ground for three months in the year. At that time the 
tree had shed its foliage, but the cotton pods remained, 
having fully burst, and covering the tree with a rich growth 
of the glossy fibre. Subsequently Mr. K. lighted upon 
large numbers of the same plant, learned its habits, and 
undertook its culture. The bolls are usually found twice 
the size of those borne by the herbaceous plant, with a 
finer fibre and a longer staple, as it apj^roaches the colder 
reirions. Mr. K. is confident that it can be successfully 
cultivated on suitable soils in any part of the belt where 
Indian corn now grows. 



COTTON AND COMilON SENSE. 23 

Returning to this country some four or five years ago, 
tlie discoverer made a verbal statement of the plant at the 
j)atent office, where he also left specimens of seeds and cut- 
tings. As is too apt to be the case about " Circumlocution" 
establishments, no attention was paid to the matter, and 
Mr. Kendall proceeded to make a trial of the new plant on 
his farm in northern Maryland. The results of his experi- 
ments he communicated to a large number of gentlemen, 
both south and north, many of whom have since visited 
him and satisfied themselves, carrying off cuttings to such 
an extent that he was left with but a small supply. He 
has also brought the subject to public notice through some 
of the agricultural journals, among others Mapes' Worhing 
Farmer. 

In its general qualities, the fibre of this plant has Tjeen 
pronounced by cotton brokers equal to the best Sea Island 
variety. A few l^ales of it have been sold in one of the 
South American markets at sixteen dollars per hundred 
pounds. The quality of this product is not the only point 
in which it excels, the quantity l)eing twice or three times 
as great as that ordinarily produced on our southern plan- 
tations. Mr. Kendall claims that in certain favorable soils 
and situations, two thousand pounds can be produced on a 
sino;le acre, and he claims that half that amount can be de- 
pended upon on an average. A bale to the acre (less than 
five hundred pounds) is held to be a good yield at the 
South. 

Assuming that our informant is strictly trustwortliy, and 
has not been carried away by a temjoorary excitement — in 
both of which respects appearances are every way in his 



24 COTTOlSr AND COMMON SENSE. 

favor — we need only allude to tlie fact of sucli a discovery 
at the present moment as slioAviug its incalculable import- 
ance. Cotton, we may fondly hope, vrill yet be successfully 
grown on the banks of the Hudson, the Delaware, and the 
Connecticut, as well as the Tombigbee or the Arkansas. 
Northern farmers will yet raise their own crops of this 
"fiocculent fibre" as they now do buckwheat or Isabella 
grapes. Why this glorious perennial should have remained 
so long in obscurity, can be explained when a thousand other 
discoveries and inventions just in the nick of time have been 
accounted for. Mr. Kendall, we learn, will shortly bring 
the subject before our citizens in a lecture in the Cooper 
Institute, or elsewhere. 

From the New Tork Herald. 

The Growth of Cotton in the North. 

A most interesting lecture will be delivered this evening 
at the Cooper Institute, by Mr. Kendall, on the new dis- 
covery that cotton can be successfally raised and profitably 
cultivated in the states of the North — -a fact which becomes 
highly important in these exciting times, when that saucy 
southern potentate. King Cotton, is becoming so contuma- 
cious and threatenino;. The lecturer will endeavor to estab- 
lish the certainty of the points that the Chilian tree-cotton, 
Gossypium Arhoreum,^ can, not only be grown in the North 
extensively, but that the initial steps toward its culture 
in localities not very remote from this city, have already 
been taken. The subject ought to attract universal at- 
tention. 



COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 25 

From tho New York Herald. 

"Can cotton grow in tlie nortli?" was tlie subject of an 
interesting lecture delivered by Mr. E,. C. Kendall, of north- 
ern Maryland, at the Cooper Institute, last evening. The 
lecturer said that two-thirds of the free states of the North 
possessed the requisite soil for the cultivation of cotton, 
equalling in quality the best southern staple, at a clear 
profit to the producer of fifty per cent, above the average 
proceeds from the usual farm crops, and made many inter- 
esting statements respecting the raising of cotton in differ- 
ent parts of the globe. Specimens of cotton of his own 
growing were exhibited by Mr. Kendall at the close of the 
lecture, which were examined with much interest by scien- 
tific and commercial gentlemen present. 

From the Evening Post. 

Cotton Culture in the West« 

Some fair specimens of cotton have been produced in 
Kansas and Illinois. The Wyandotte (Kansas) Gazette 
states that Mr. Kenfroe, a Georgian, has succeeded in rais- 
ing an experimental crop near Quindaro, and the product 
is described as follows: 

" The stalk stood a little over five feet high, and had on 
it one hundred and thirty-five bolls, at least one hundred 
of which Mr. Renfroe assured us were sufficiently matured 
to make good cotton. He only planted a dozen hills, and 
has eleven more stalks at home, which he says will average 
full as good as the one he showed us." 

The Chicago Times has this account of a similar experi 
ment in Illinois : 



26 COTTON AND CO:MMO]Sr SENSE. 

" 111 Nashville, in tlie southern part of Illinois, consider- 
able quantities have been raised, which have been disposed 
of at the cotton manufactory of GroU cfe Deverman, in this 
city. This cotton is pronounced by competent judges to 
be equal to a good quality of southern production. The 
only necessary it lacks is what is known as the staple, but 
in every other respect it answei^ all pur]30ses. About two 
hundred pounds were 1)ought by the above-named firm 
some two weeks ago, which, as soon as more can be ob- 
tained, will be worked up into batting." 

From the Evening Express. 

Perennial Cotton in Cold Climates. 

Captain R. C. Kendall, formerly of the United States 
Coast Survey, is making an earnest effort to introduce for 
genei'al culture in this part of the country, a species of cot- 
ton-growing plant from Peru, which w^e noticed the other 
day. Either seed or cuttings may be used in propagating 
the plant, and Mr. Kendall proposes in a lecture, Tuesday 
evening, at the Cooper Institute, to demonstrate that it is 
practicable to produce, in the free states, an abundant sup- 
ply of good cotton. lie predicts that — " the period is not 
very remote, when hedges, most efficient as fences, shall 
yield annual dividends of cotton ; ornamental trees blend- 
ing the useful with the beautiful, shall repay tenfold their 
cost and culture ; when the rugged heights of the Hudson, 
the plains of New Jersey, the fertile valleys of the Keystone 
State, and the undulating prairies of the Great West, shall 
gleam in the sunlight, white as the winter drift, with gen- 
erous pods of Democratic cotton." 



COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 27 

From the Boston Journal. 

The Cotton-Tree. 

The South American cottou-tree, wliicli Mr. Kendall, of 
Maryland, is calling public attention to, has been domesti- 
cated on his own farm, and he declares that it withstands 
without injury, the severest winters ; it may be propagated 
from seed, but more readily from cuttings simpl}^ thrust 
into the ground, and it may be planted out as an apple, 
peach, or pear orchard, in a field cropped with any of the 
cereals, until, having reached its full growth, the tree should 
be allo^ved to occupy the land exclusively. It bears cut- 
ting, also, as kindly as any known tree, and in field culture 
may be kept so pruned that its 23i'oduce shall be within 
reach of the hand. The crop in South America has reached 
two thousand pounds to the acre, whereas the annual cot- 
ton plant of the southern states yields but five hundred 
pounds to the same area. Peru already exports of this cot- 
ton about six thousand bales, of one hundred and fifty 
pounds to the bale. The quality is said to be su])erior to 
the best upland staple of our cotton states. 

From Hovej'^'s Magazine of Horticulture. 

Tree Cotton. 

Mr. Kendall, of Maryland, has ])een describing the cot- 
ton-tree of South America {^Gossyiyium Arhoreiini)^ which 
he states he discovered in the high regions of South Amer- 
ica, and which he says may be cultivated anywhere that 
Indian corn will mature. He has already tried it in Mary- 
land with perfect success. This is a very important dis- 



28 COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 

covery, if what lie supposes is true ; but we are in some 
doubts about tlie hardiness of any South American tree in 
oui' New England climate, which is very unlike that of 
Maryland. Tree cotton is nothing new ; but a cotton-tree 
that will stand our northern winters is. We, however, 
deem the subject of so much importance, that we hope Mr. 
Kendall will distribute some of the seed or plants, that a 
trial may be made. Just now, when the cotton-supply 
question is so much discussed, and the world is looking to 
the South for a full stock, the existence of a plant which 
will yield it in the abundance Mr. Kendall affirms, in our 
northern states, would be a discovery greater than has ever 
yet been made. Let the ex^^eriment be thoroughly tried. 

Growth of Cotton in Pcnnsylyania. 

The Philadelphia Press has an article in which the pos- 
sibility of successfully cultivating cotton in the Middle 
States is eliscussed at some length. It is the general opin- 
ion that the climate of the Middle States is altogether un 
favorable to the gro^vth of this product ; yet the Press 
publishes a letter from a well-known gentleman, residing 
in Brazil, which goes to show that in the table-lands there, 
where the climate is nearly identical Avith our own, a spe- 
cies of superior cotton is produced, on plants which flourish 
year after year, amid frosts that are fatal to vegetation of 
less hardy character. The writer was formerly a resident 
of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and seeing a paragraph 
in the Press^ inviting farmers to try the experiment of 
growing cotton there, he sent Mr. Forney some seeds of a 
peculiar kind of cotton growing in Brazil, for distribution 



COTTOX AND COMMON SENSE. 29 

among his friends. Of tliis cotton lie says: "It is culti- 
vated in the province of Minas Geraes, on liigli land, where 
they have severe frosts, and cannot grow rice or sugar- 
cane, but have all the fi'uits of the Middle States, United 
States. 'The Eui'opean grass, triticwn repens^ is entirely 
killed every year, not the root. There are two kinds of 
this cotton, white and nankeen, of which I send you the 
two varieties." 

Referring to a certain tree growling from seeds of the 
latter quality, which had been planted some six years be- 
fore, he says : " In Pennsylvania this would become an an- 
nual. In produces cotton the first year ; and I have rea- 
son to believe that it will bear the climate of Pennsylvania. 
There have been here this year some heavy frosts, and the 
grass referred to is entirely killed ; but on this cotton-tree 
the leaves were still green, and there still remain some 
flowers." Mr. Forney has distributed the seeds as re- 
quested, and the matter will now at least get a fair trial. 



Extract from a letter received by a gentleman in this city, 

FROM HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, IN NeW BeDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS. 

" Mr. Crosby, formerly of Nantucket, has recently re- 
turned from Callao, South America, where he has been 
many years in business. He expresses his surprise that 
our government has never done any thing about introduc- 
ing the cotton-tree into the states ; says there are many 
varieties growing wild there (in Peru); that there are 
three distinct colors or shades of it at Callao ; that they 
export it from there, the cotton being superior to the best 



30 COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 

Orleans cotton, often equalling Sea Island. He says it has 
not excited much attention there, until within a year or 
two, but that a wealthy house there is now setting out a 
plantation of the trees," 

I will here take occasion to introduce the opinion enter- 
tained by a veteran cotton-planter of Mississippi, in regard 
to the merit of my 23rotege, as written by himself, and 
published a year since in one of the leading commercial 
papers of the South. 

The Peruvian Cotton-Tree. 

THE TRUE GOSSYPIUil ARBOREUM OF LINN.-EUS. 

Grateful in its shade, magnificent in its beauty, and in- 
valuable for its rich and abundant crops. 

" Perhaps one of the most striking instances where the 
utilitarianism of the age, ever ready to grasp the substan- 
tial benefits of every hint derived from the votaries of 
science, has l)3eii at fault, is shown in the fact that a cot- 
ton-bearing tree, producing annual crops in the ' greatest 
abundance, enduring without replanting, through a series 
of years, yielding a fair crop in the third, and attaining its 
maximum in the sixth or seventh year of its growth, is 
now flourishing within two thousand miles of the cotton 
fields of the United States, in a soil and climate similar to 
those of the Middle States of this Union, where it has 
grown neglected for all practical purposes, only claiming 
the eye of the savage, or occasionally employing his rude 
industry, from a period anterior perhaps to the far-off 
times when ancient Greece and Rome paid tribute to the 
cotton-looms of India. 



COTTON AND COMMON SENSE. 31 

"We do not allude to tlie giant Go-ssypium of Borneo, 
the cultivation of wliicli for commercial purposes would be 
utterly impracticable, in all latitudes ; nor to the stunted 
perennial shrub common to the desert regions of the Chira 
valley ; but to a legitimate cotton-tree^ hardy in its habits, 
annual in its yield, excellent in its staple, and generous in 
its production ; now blooming in the wilds of Peru, Bo- 
livia and Chili. 

"The attention of the cotton-growing and manufacturing 
world having been lately attracted toward Peru, as a 
country well adapted to the production of cotton, some 
slight notices of this tree have found their way into the 
public journals, and various claims have already been set 
up by 'different parties, claiming the merit of its discovery. 
But we. know that long anterior to any of these supposed 
discoveries, our Mr. Kendall, having been called by his 
profession, to those remote regions, first noticed the tree ; 
and having carefully studied its habits, and familiarized 
himself, with its economy, thus assuring himself of its en- 
tire adaptability to our soil, and to a climate much colder 
than ours in the cotton states, brought with him on his 
return, not only samples of the staple, which were pro- 
nounced l)y competent judges to be fully equal to any, and 
superior to ujost United States grown cotton, but also a 
small parcel of seed, which he distributed to different par- 
ties. These persons, doubtful of the result, opposed to 
progress, or more probably totally oblivious of the fact 
that they had these seeds in possession, never committed 
them to the ground. Two other parcels intended for dis- 
tribution, were unfortunately lost, as will be seen by a late 



32 COTTOlSr AND COMMOlSr SENSE. 

article in tlie Soutlierii Field and Fireside. So that tlie 
only experiment really made, was by Mr. Kendall himself, 
with a few seeds, the result of which proves most conclu- 
sively that the Peinivian perennial, or tree-cotton, can be 
successfully produced as far north as the parallel of 40** at 
least." 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



000 931 732 6 




